McSenegal? (by Thom)

Other possible titles for this blog post: "Bookkeeping is fun", "We're Moving" and "Hey, are you ever going to tell us what your big news is?"
The big reveal time is here! We're going to be leaving Mali, but staying in Africa. For right now we'll just lay out the facts and we'll share more about what has led up to this later. Since arriving in Africa I've been the bookkeeper for the Mali field of the C&MA. After spending the week before last in Dakar, Senegal in training I'm now also the bookkeeper for the Senegal field and I'll be taking over the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) bookkeeping in July. For now I'm doing all this bookkeeping from the Mali office in Bamako but starting next year I'll be working as part of the Africa Regional Office in Dakar. We were scheduled to return to the US February 15-June 1, 2009 as our regular furlough but with the move happening we'll be pushing everything up a month. That means we'll be stateside Jan 15-May 1, 2009, leaving from Bamako and returning directly to Dakar. Honestly, I don't think we could be more excited about this. We don't mean to criticize Bamako or Mali in any way but Dakar is a much more modern city and we're excited about the opportunities we'll be able to provide our girls that will be there, especially a great boarding school (where they won't have to board!).
On the downside, we won't be able to move our Jeep to Senegal because of their vehicle importation laws. That means we'll need to raise funds again to purchase a car. We'll share more about that shortly. Please be praying for us in this time of transition as well as for the missionary team here, in Senegal, and for our vehicle fund. Thanks!
Oh, in case you're wondering: McSenegal doesn't have that "snappiness" that McMali has, so I don't think the name is going anywhere. Besides, our daughters will be little McMalians no matter where we live!